■1 ^x 



K. l(yC>0 



hi. 



) CJ , 



¥- 



THE UNION. 







Poetae 

quorum comoedia prisca virorum est, 



Si quis erat dignus describi, 



multa cum libertate notabant. — HoR. 




BOSTON: 
CROCKER AND BREWSTER, 

47 Washington Street. 

18C0. 



75%3 



l^ 



^,-:,?\ 
^ 



M 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the j ear 1860, by 

CROCKEa AND BREWSTER, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



* * * that your union and brotherly affection may be per- 
petual — that the free Constitution, which is the work of your 
hands, may be sacredly maintained — that its administration in 
every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue — 
that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under 
the auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so careful a 
preservation, and so prudent a use of this blessing, as will ac- 
quire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, 
the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a 
stranjrer to it. — Washington. 



THE UNION. 



THE UNION. 



From cliffs that blusli with orient day to plains 
In gold and purple bathed, as daylight wanes ; 
By sounding shores where baffled ocean breaks, 
And strands whose echoes leap from ocean lakes ; 
AVhere lonely peaks the rock-built mountains crown. 
Or life's wild tumult stirs the busy town ; 
Secluded deep where nestled hamlets smile, 
And shadows flicker down the forest aisle, 
To broad savannahs lit with noontide gleams. 
That dance and sparkle on exulting streams ; 
Where prairies throb to nature's open heart. 
Or spires arraign the city's sordid mart — 
Through the wide land the mimic lightning flies, 
To kindle rapture in a people's eyes ; 
To-day, — to-day, a nation's plaudits ring. 
And hail its chosen chief a more than king ! 



8 

Well spoke the propliet-priest — on ruins past 
Time builds his noblest empire for the last. 
The slumbering East let night's dun cloud invest, 
One star unsetting hovers in the West. 
Girdled by tides that feel the Atlantic sweep, 
Its realm shall skirt the far Pacific deep, 
Kiss seas, where Arctic constellations shine. 
And tropic waves that wash the burning line ; 
Soon, but the circling glories of the day- 
Shall course its empire and confirm its sway. 

Even now, afar it leaves the world of old. 

For fresh sea-islands and its coast of gold ; 

Meets unworn nature, boundless and sublime, 

And culls the gifts of every blended clime — 

Above, beneath, the treasure and the store, 

A realm of corn and caves of i>;litterino: ore. 

Still, through its West, while eastward day is done, 

Flames high in heaven November's lingering sun ; 

The bloom of early prime reviving owns 

The frost its kindred in these rival zones , 

Here, shrinking Autumn peers through early snows, 

There, on its tendril droops the fading rose ; 



9 

And oft as Spring returns, with jolly looks, 
Piped to by all the winds and babbling brooks, 
Ere o'er our Northern hills his glory spreads. 
Hot Summer southward in his footsteps treads. 

"What grander scenes his raptured eye arrest, 
Whose tracks pursue the f;ir receding West ! 
The camping-ground of nations on its plains, 
A world's proud barrier in its mountain chains ; 
Rivers, with tributary streams that glide. 
An ocean's volume borne on every tide ; 
The ruddy orange flowers adown their course, 
The grizzly bear drinks at their icy source ; 
Their mouths the freighted spoils of commerce fill, 
Their springs the Indian nursling leaps at will ; 
And seas far inland, whose astonished deep 
Once heard the battle-shout of navies sweep, 
Though hostile now along their margin stray 
But the wild huntsman and scarce wilder prey. 

Not as in cloudy climes, like nature's pall. 
But robed in glory fleets the season's fall. 



10 

Arrayed in golden liaze the atmosphere, 
The bright forerunner of the waning year, 
Yet Hfts that lustrous veil to sovereign noon, 
Or softest wooed by the young hunter's moon. 
Purple the vapors, crimson-streaked and dun, 
When shoots his devious rays the struggling sun ; 
But round his evening couch, a gorgeous screen, 
Violet they hang, orange and tenderest green. 
Yet scarcely heaven, with richer tints imbued, 
Reflects the glowing colors of the wood. 
The ripened foliage sparkles in the dawn, 
Dew-dropt on scarlet sobering into fawn ; 
And through the forest every tree-top vies 
With the "bright blazon of its neighbor's dyes. 
The airs, unladen yet with Autumn's moan. 
Breathe, lowly sweeping, music's murmured tone ; 
Waft lightly down the mingled leaves that fall. 
To spread a carpet for a monarch's hall ; 
While forest, hill and plain in slumber rest. 
And brooding peace clasps natm^e to her breast. 

Oh, happiest land of all the favored earth ! 
The cradle-chant of hope's reviving birth. 



11 

From laughing waves that revelled on thy shore, 
And swift-winged winds that to thy centre bore, 
In chorus broke, when, all his chart unfurled. 
Fulfilling Time revealed the unknown world ; 
This young Atlantis, more than fables feign, 
Fresh with Hesperian charms, beyond the main ; 
The virgin soil by sages long-foretold, 
Man'5 home at last in Freedom*s final hold. 

So rose the vision when, their lonely sail 

Furled in the haven and escaped the gale. 

Their temple's floor the fragile deck they trod. 

Its arch the unknown skies, — but with them God — 

Those ocean-pilgrims tiirough the wintry wave 

Confessed his gracious hand that led to save ; 

Blessed him whose word the stormy flood controls, 

A'ld felt a nation's fortunes in their souls. 

The hearts they bore, from license struggling free, 

Undaunted braved the desert and the sea ; 

From doting Eld they wrought the spirit's youth — 

Their law was freedom — ^but their freedom Truth. 

What were the savage and the icy shore. 

And mortal ills their untried steps before ? 



12 

The traversed waters closed tlieir path behind 
From terrors threatening the immortal mind. 
Darkness and danger might beset their way — 
Their marching footsteps sought the trusted day. 
Alike the set of eve and morning's sun 
Found them true sojourners, their haraess on. 
No dreamers they, the trained in heart and hand, 
Who steered the bark which only bore to land ; 
And thus they framed their State, supremely wise, 
On earth their tent, a building in the skies ! 

They passed away, that race of iron mould. 

The sage in council, as in battle bold ; 

No mythic legends cloud their honest birth, 

But nobler no progenitors of earth ; 

Men, frail with human needs, yet all their days, 

Their thorny paths they trod like flowery ways ; 

Conquerors in all that glorifies the name, 

A people's patriarchs their recorded fame. 

Down time's descending plane the scene expands ; 
The widening canvas broader tints demands. 



13 

Before tlie fathers' eyes a desert froze, 

Their sons beheld it blooming as the rose ; 

The pilgrim remnant at their Sinai slept, 

The promised land their children's children kept. 

Still in their manly hearts the blood of old. 

Streaming and fresh, a ruddy current rolled. 

Poor, patient, brave, their generations ran 

Through hardy sinews and the soul of man. 

Their stubborn toil made harshest acres yield, 

The forest felled, and civilized the field. 

Betimes they listened to the measured wail 

Of untried waves, and battled with the gale. 

Dashed with rough spray on roughest sea-banks flung, 

Precarious spoils from ocean depths they wrung ; 

In sylvan haunts the primal life pursued 

Of tribes that troll the stream and range the wood ; 

The flying wild-deer hunted in his glen. 

Tracked the gaunt she-wolf to her savage den ; 

Caught the red Indian's trail, the lurker found — 

His story tells " The dark and bloody ground." 

Inured to perils that assail the brave. 

All ills they knew but his who lives a slave. 



14 

A century long, and lialf anotlier's years, 
Without were fightings and within were fears ; 
Yet how even war's dread charms their souls possessed, 
Quebec's proud heights and Breton's Cape attest. 
On lonely frontiers wild with strange alarms, 
AVhat handfulls quelled the desert's host in arms ! 
How oft on ramparts wrenched from veteran foes 
The Red-Cross o'er the paling Lilies rose ! 
Why need their tale ? — at last a people clears 
With reckoning steel oppression's long arrears. 
They wrote their record, when the Lion's mane 
The swooping Eagle ruffled on the plain. 
Then rose transcendent, through the gloom of age, 
Fable no longer on the dreamer's page. 
But the bright dawn, prophetic and supreme, 
And earth's exulting nations hailed the beam. 
Crowned v/ith the conquest that amazed the world, 
The young Republic's battle-banner furled. 
She stood, the mistress of her kindred States, 
Her borders peace and freedom in her gates. 

As some night-voyager, his reckoning lost, 
And half a wreck his bark, so tempest-tossed, 



15 

Cheered by the flush of morn, and close at hand, 
With favoring breezes, hails the welcome land ; 
No more of winds the victim or the sport, 
Looks to his anchors as he makes the port ; 
So, from the stormy sea's tumultuous tide 
The new-born Empire's chiefs the shore descried ; 
Joyful yet calm, and firm in council sure, 
They too would make their stately ship secure. 
On history's brightening sheet their annals trace — 
True kings of men were they, that generous race. 
Though the grand moment, in their vision's scope, 
Clasped the world's past and all its future hope, 
Yet gravely pondering all their toils had won. 
They deemed their great achievement but begun. 

Launched on the stream of time, those sages gray, 
Beheld their bark still cleave her prosperous w^ay, 
Aloft, alow, spread every swelling sail. 
Staunch in the storm, and steadier for the gah 
Their ransomed States one mighty nation saw, 
A sovereign people with a sovereign law. 
Immortal truth, through the long age of night 
Victor supreme at last, emerged to light, — 



16 

Reason, not force should rule — and where she sways, 

The noblest freeman he who best obeys. 

What burnmg thoughts, to fire a nation's soul, 

In livmg language on their utterance roll 1 

No needless bonds should check aspiring man — 

So their great minds conceived the wondrous plan — 

Who could rebel against consummate good. 

Or traitor prove where perfect Freedom stood ? 

So rose, — as watchers see Orion rise. 

His belted cluster brightest in the skies ,-^ 

The star-crowned Union rose, its arch sublime 

With heaven commingling and untouched by time, — 

Their State a temple, pure as sacred fane 

Reared to assure the new Saturnian reign. 

The past is written. Time's great chart unfold^- 
The Golden Age match with the Age of gold — 
Renowned for glory, or in power supreme. 
Illustrious realms long faded like a dream — 
This, in the lapse of ages, crow^ned " The Free," 
That, slowly rising from the conquered sea ; 
Or, the proud kingdom, yet the queen of earth, 
Lost in barbarian mists its doubtful birth — 



17 

Their annals search, through all recorded lore — 
What star of empire rose like this before ? 
So clear at once its destined course serene, 
All heaven its own — and not a cloud between ! 

The past is written — splendid the review — 
Heroes and statesmen, was your vision true ? 
If, in those mansions of unmingled joy. 
Earth's fleeting cares one transient thought employ 
Say, generous spirits, has your country's name 
Redeemed the pledge it gave to future fame ? 
Say, if the land for which you toiled and bled 
Reap the ripe harvest worth the blood you shed ? 
If, hallowed then, the temple and the shrine, 
jMore pure, more holy, seem almost divine ? 
If thus, — on wrecks of Commonw^ealths long gone 
Enduring stands this last and matchless one ; 
Here hope, the dove, may brood upon her nest, — 
Despair, the raven, croak himself to rest. 

Fain would my pencil paint a brilHant scene — 
Shall hues of darker mixture intervene ? 

2* 



18 

Alas, not all a blooming garden grows, 

Even where the summer sun of freedom glows. 

The self-same heat that warms the floweret's seed 

Matures the poisonous germ and rankling weed; 

And good and ill in human life's affairs 

Spring side by side, like wheat perplexed with tares. 

The giddy rabble, led by knave or fool, 

No ruler loves who knows himself to rule. 

Surely, of every blessing under heaven, 

Freedom most needs some guardian guidance given — 

And tyrant License, where that wardship fails, 

Ilevels and reigns — out of Utopian tales. 

Hard fate is his, who tells unw^elcome truth — 
Even battered beaux love best imputed youth. 
Who dares announce the world's gi'eat trust betrayed. 
Freedom's broad sunshine dwindled into shade. 
And him, the idol-genius of the shore. 
Once held divine, decrepid ere fourscore ? 
Perish the thought ! And yet to closer eyes 
The flattered sketch may own some homelier dyes. 
'• Cromwell, our first of men," who scorned a sham. 
Growled to his limner — " Paint me as I am !" 



19 

Plain sense indeed — ^patriots of modern date 
It scarce might suit — but lie was really great. 
What if we own, that something of the fears 
Are facts developed in descending years — 
Fears, that the wisest statesmen half conceived, 
Yet hoped the best, more than the worst believed ? 

Progressive sages might pronoimce this " stuff," 
Who count the freest never free enough ; 
For such philosophers there arc, who lead 
Select disciples, zealous for the creed — 
Boast of the well-thronged hall at eventide, 
The coteries pet, the giggling Miss's pride ; 
Scribblers of venal sheets, the public bane ; 
Lounojers at laroie with ma<i2:ots in the brain : 
Ill-guided youths, of sense yet immature. 
And moonstruck elders too far gone to cure ; 
Women of late exempt from ducking-stools. 
Transmuted scolds to lecturers turned in schools ; 
Rappers for spirits, reason's scorn and jest. 
The " circle's " sleek free-lover and its pest ; 
Sophists and smatterers, frivolous as bold ; 
The knave who sells the public cause for gold ; 



20 

Scliemers on solemn weathercocks that ride ; 
Fanatics sour their unreined steeds astride ; 
Torches in tribunes, in the pulpit flame ; 
The mob's seducer and the senate's shame ; 
The wo-begone, yet restless fussy crew 
Of good-for-nothings with no good to do — 
Leaders like these, whom common fortunes link, 
To make the thoughtless herd believe they think, 
Impulse, not sense, their motive and their guide. 
Like skiffs unmastered on a dangerous tide, 
Unfit to build, yet eager to destroy. 
From social evils snatch a desperate joy — 
Till, nature's law reversed, and right made wrong, 
The weak become but prey to tempt the strong. 
Discord confounds creation's sober plan, — 
The State a bedlam, and a savage, man ! 

The problem stands — though quite for thought too 

sad — 
May not mankind be all next door to mad ? 
And high debate might suit a kindred point — 
What governed States show wits most out of joint. 



21 

Tlic careless Frenchman carols in his chains, 
Megrims infest the free-born Briton's brains ; 
A free republic, sour yet loose become, 
One mighty madness swayed fanatic Rome ; 
And too much freedom — 'tis beyond a doubt, 
Turns the best people's senses inside out. 

Just heaven ! what else could lead their patriot sons, 
If in such veins old blood not stagnant runs — 
The sons of sires who shook an empire's throne. 
And conquered pricelesss freedom for their own — • 
To put at mortal hazard heaven's great boon — 
From reason's standard to revolt so soon — 
Still for some cheat to barter substance fair. 
The cheerful sunlight for the meteor's glare — 
Idly of dear-bought liberty to rave — 
Yet risk their very birthright for the slave ! 

JNIark v/ell yon throng, where through the opening 

door 
Crowd presses crowd, as waves drive waves ashore ; 
The well-filled hall might festal day beseem, 
Some cultured audience and exalted theme. 



22 

Are these the lords of man's sublimest race, 
Stately in form and half divme in face ? 
Masters of thought in realms mitrod before, 
Kipe with rich fruits of time's digested lore ? 
All ill desire uprooted, or represt, 
And passion quelled in every sovereign breast — 
Just waiting till, the gates of pearl unrolled. 
They glide on pavements wrought with gems and 
gold ? 

JJearded each venerable man appears, 

Nor closer tonsured seem his junior peers ; 

Unkempt the locks that down their shoulders stray, 

Dingy with dirt and mostly flecked with gray ; 

Their aim accomplished shows a zeal devout 

For furnished heads, if not within, without ; 

AVanlike the visage, haply gaunt and grim. 

That glowers beneath the head-gear's slouching brim ; 

Feverish and fretful from each eyelid streams 

The inward flashing of distempered dreams, 

Betokening souls of stuff" ideal wrought, 

To tumult stirred by all the rage of thought. 



23 

A goodly concourse ! Packed at last, and piled, 

Odd contrasts here — yet strangely reconciled ! 

A wild, irregular, eccentric crew — 

Part of the curious college Horace drew — 

Seekers abroad for o:ood unsoucfht at home. 

Rovers in cloudland, destined still to roam, 

Sceptics, who nothing doubt but clearest truth, 

Priests, better suited to the showman's booth, 

Enthusiasts, grappling after straws in air. 

Staunch friends of movement,' and no matter where ; 

Smatterers, alike in letters and in art, 

Uneasy minds — the ill at ease in heart ; 

Bardlings, impatient at too long suspense 

Of fame reserved even for a twelvemonth hence ; 

A nerveless, scattering, queer, impulsive train. 

Waxen in heart, nor waxen less in brain ; 

Free speechers, wagging their incessant tongues, 

To prove that ill-used member's untold wrongs ; 

The bat-eyed, dreaming crowd, without an aim, 

A mental medley of the blind and lame ; 

Parsons unfrocked, to utter ravings given 

Against mankind and sense and truth and heaven ; 



24 

Stark staring radicals, the Black, the Red,— 

The mob on general discontentment fed ; 

The whole fantastic, philanthropic throng, 

With hearts half right that make their heads all 

wrong ; 
Aesthetic twaddlers, and in mystic lore 
The dreary voyagers never reaching shore ; 
Pupils of science falsely so esteemed, 
"Whose minds grew darker as the daylight streamed ; 
Though rays (some hold) have pierced the ages' 

shade, 
And man, far lower than the angels made, 
Appears (and here their scope confirms their creed,) 
The donkey's kin and brother of the weed. 
, Here, black and white diversify the crowd. 
With Tag and Rag — the vulgar and the loud ; 
Ihipers and dupes in charlatanry mix, 
Jugglers in politics and other tricks — 
A vagrant mass, at least that once a year 
From holes and comers of the earth appear- 
In short, behold the Children of the Mist, 
Minds of all hues and warped with every twist. 



25 

As separate clouds that scud the troubled sky, 
The gust impending, all together fly, 
Their variant whims obey the central blast, 
In one grand burst of folly merged at last ! 

Thus, oft, your modern philanthropic bore 
Is social order's most corrodent sore. 
His cold, vain mind unchecked by reverent awe, 
He is not harmless, for he breaks the law ; 
In soul an infidel, he never learns. 
In heart rapacious, radical he turns ; 
Narrow and mean, yet pressing for your pelf, 
Prompts stray reforms, but never mends himself; 
Discharged in will from duty's sovereign rule, 
Heathen confessed of Epicurus' school, 
Impulse, not truth, gives all his actions shape, 
Just as it leads a tiger or an ape. 

Yet ah, too long forgot the gentle dames — 
Homage, though Hngering, still awaits their claims. 
At first, some tender doubts might intervene, 
If women thus, and thus arrayed are seen. 
3 



26 

Grace to the sex— when granted most, too cold 
For mother, sweetheart, wife — the yomig and old— 
Kevered and loved, till life itself expire, 
Each sacred centre of home's altar fire ; 
Pure, gentle, true, we bless her warmer heart, 
The rougher man's etherial counterpart ; 
Modest, devout, enshrined in holy grace, 
Unsulhed truth sliines heightened in her face ; 
Her soul our mortal nature's subtler leaven. 
To raise and keep the mortal nearer heaven ; 
Star of the court, the camp, the field, the hall. 
Shot from her sphere, she falls — and what a fall ! 

Yet lightly sketched I pass this female band, 
Scarce held, I ween, the graces of the land ; 
Mostly they seem, — I dread to write the word — 
Ladies mature who never knew a lord ; 
And wives, far past from any lord's control, — 
But not a beauty brightens through the whole. 
Meagre their frames, methinks, and somewhat tall, 
And how their robes a modiste would appall ! 
Such forms,- indeed, may ardent thought import, 
The lank, at least, for some are thick and short. 



27 

Bloomer the garb betrayed above, below, 
The only bloom those withered features know ; 
For roses and their sister lilies stay 
But with the young and innocently gay. 
And yet slight flush may tinge the sallow cheek, 
When rises some less practised dame to speak ; 
For here, be sure, no lack of speaking skill 
Checks man's or Avoman's fell rhetoric will. 
Indignant powers for woman's rights they tease. 
Here, where all women do just what they please. 
Slight thanks to logic owes the random force. 
Wavering and shrill, along the flat discourse ; 
Stale, formal jargon all, and flimsy cant, 
A hollow, heartless, impious. Godless rant. 
Oh woman ! blest with every instinct given. 
Where reason fails, to lead the soul to heaven — 
Alien from love, home, truth, and hope ; oh, say, 
What shallow fop has led you thus astray ? 

Ah, welcome pause! now every brow unbends — 
The tribune, lo ! an orator ascends. 
These dreary shriekcrs hushed and mumblers gruff*, 
Come lioj)es of some more palatable stuff". 



28 

His form and air denote a different race— 

At least, lie seems a gentleman in face. 

By natm-e meant to play a higher part, 

Win honest minds and touch the sober heart, 

Yet wildered long, by one delusive gleam, 

The fitful glare leads on his feverish dream. 

Pale with the hues defeated aims betray, ^ 

The fires within yet steal his life away. 

Eye, voice and hand, at once his art reveal, 

Art, which but souls in unison can feel. 

As some insane asylum's man of laws 

To the same ears pleads his unvarying cause, — 

So on one thread his ebon tropes he strings. 

His hearers flighty as his fancy's wings. 

Fast as his artificial madness rolls, 

A kindred frenzy revels in their souls. 

Oft, as fit audience on his accents hung, 

And drank the fluent poison of his tongue. 

At some great name w^hen flew his venomed shaft. 

They cheered its flight — rthe jeering public laughed. 

Narrowed and soured and fettered all his mind. 

How can he soar, the wingless, lame and blind ! 



29 

Dizzy with freedom's very draught, he raves 
Of scourges, chains, oppressions, tyrants, slaves — 
The thankless black bewails with futile trash. 
And at his lord shakes, safe, the distant lash. 

The question comes — why fret yourself for fools — 

Madmen, mad women, — only out of rules ? 

Bootless, indeed, to deal with such as these — 

But wider, deadlier, spreads the deep disease. 

To them this phantom of their lurid dreams 

No spectral shadow, but substantial seems ; 

Fit tools for those who lack such earnest friends — ■ 

By them the crafty knave secures his ends. 

The wind is sown, and reaped the whirlwind's blast. 

And the whole Commonwealth is swept at last. 

Thus wide diffused, a common vice is.known, 

At length a common virtue almost grown ; 

The few who loathe it charged with want of gi-ace— 

Even priests proclaim it from their sacred place. 

So, some volcanic mountain's fiery heart 

Bubbles, a wonder, and a thing apart ; 

But poured in lava down the mountain's side, 

Whole cities pej-ish in the sulphurous tide. 

3* 



30 

Yes — in the house erected for the Lord 
Behold the reverend trifler with his word I 
Not he, the venerable man who knew 
To claim for God our childhood's stainless dew ; 
By holy precept and example given, 
Who led, not masses, but the man to heaven — - 
But a vain, superficial, vision-blurred. 
Time-serving idol of the giddy herd ; 
For thoughts that plume the soul's immortal wings, 
Who prates ten thousand flippant, flimsy things ; 
Gives his weak flock a shallow cup to quafl", 
Now bids them weep, now leads them in a laugh ; 
For the free Gospel's strict yet generous bounds, 
Free speech, free thought, free everything propounds; 
Now, love enforces in harangues grotesque. 
Now, teaches rifle practice from the desk- 
Till, topsy-turvy all, of mightier w.eight 
Grow things of time, than all the spirit's fate ; 
And scarce less desperate seems his crime abhorred. 
Who holds a slave, than his who sold his Lord ! 

Many there are, without one half his wit. 
Who make God's house no place for sinners fit ; 



31 

Saints only there, and lie the most a saint, 

Infected deepest with the negro taint. 

Bigots are these, of most unquestioned zeal 

For every cause that serves their private weal ; 

AVhiners perhaps about a glass of wine, 

And sure to fumble over things divin'e ; 

Their pranks excused who blackest hobbies ride, 

Bitter as gall to every soul beside ; 

Parsons, whose charity is spent in church, 

But leaves the outside sinner in the lurch. 

Preachers Hke these would make the pulpit prove 

A spring of hatred, not a well of love ; 

No gospel message theirs, with softening art 

Contrived to win the soul and mend the heart ; 

And if on willing minds their precepts fell, 

Earth were a place — for spirits that rebel. 

But the frank crowd desert, in sheer disgust, 

Nor longer tinist abusers of their trust — 

A scattered flock, for lack of heavenly bread. 

They feed themselves, or rove astray unfed. 

Thus blown about by all the winds that veer. 

Blind guides indeed these worldling priests appear. 



32 

And make the Church — the glorious, pure and high,- 
Essential hnk between the earth and sky — 
Seem but decaymg, in a world so lost, — 
A crazy bark on wild waves tempest tost ! 

Long past the happy day, from dread exempt. 
When quirks like these could only breed contempt- 
Served but the sober fancy to amuse. 
Sketched in the morning sheet's erratic news ; 
Of vulgar crowd, perchance, that overnight 
Hearkened as usual to some bedlamite ; 
By the grave citizen scarce read — at most, 
Dismissed forgotten, with his tea and toast ; 
The livelier skimmed it with incurious eye, 
Refined and gentle spirits passed it by. 
Peril from cause like this what patriot guessed ? 
A passing shadow on the mountain's breast. 

Good Heaven ! the cloud, no bigger than a hand, 
Grown to a monster, darkens all the land, — 
Blights like a pest the little and the great. 
And hangs, destruction's besom, o'er the State ! 



33 

"indeed, a wondrous thing, for men of sense 
A nation's fate to rest on such pretence — 
Their past all blazoned with their father's fame, 
Their own the proud Kepublic's glorious name, 
Their hope, a bow on mists with light impearled. 
Pledged to the promise of a new-born world ! 
Yet thus the chosen seed, at Sinai's base, 
The awful guide that led them, face to face. 
The mountain's summit veiled in fiery smoke, 
"Whence pealed the thunder and the lightnings broke. 
Turned from the strength of Jacob's Mighty Staff — 
]Melted their gold, and bowed before a calf! 

Yet might not some survey less partial yield 
A brighter picture on a broader field ? 
These wild fanatics crowd the darkening line, 
And meddhng priests exclude the sound divine ; 
Even patriots live in these degenerate days — 
True — but the noble ask no labored praise. 
Each age enjoys the good, the bad bewails. 
But oft as patriots sleep, the worst prevails. 
The careless freeman slumbering at his post. 
May wake in vain, to find his freedom lost. 



34 

My honest sketch portrays a wondrous horde, 

The midnight's offspring, hke the prophet's gourd ; 

Scarce known till late, or scorned for lack of grace, 

This monstrous wild ^f weeds that grow apace. 

All climes and ages own the poisonous root. 

But the best soil suits best its deadly shoot ; 

Curse of free States, insatiate demagogues. 

And the vile crew in league with public rogues, — 

In short, a desperate, fierce agrarian band. 

Behind whose footsteps droops the withering land. 

But for this hh'eling herd's unsated thirst, 

No weak fanatic had his starveling nursed. 

The dandled imp their venal nurture made 

Their country's torment and their stock in trade. 

Still dreading lest the father's crazy brains, 

Some luckless hour, contrive to cheat their pains — 

Fuel for party flame his zeal provides. 

He fires the engine — ^but a shrewder guides. 

Yon stately domes are gleaming o'er the tide. 
That rolls Mount Vernon's reverend shores beside ; 
Sacred with one great name — not ours alone. 
For man himself claims part in Washington. 



Beneath, those halls so graced with splendid art, 
To charm the fancy and inspire the heart. 
There, patriot, hero, sage, how often led 
A nation's grave debate — and now arc dead ! 
Their proud eulogium, o'er their honored graves, 
Time friends of man — ^but never slaves of slaves. 

Fresh from the memory of that bright array, 

Intrusive thought would scrutinize to-day. 

The prize of ages, by the father won, 

A priceless heirship doubtless holds the son. 

They paid its cost with blood — what powers defied, 

What foes they vanquished, and what deaths they 

died ! 
Boon of the soul's long thirst, through lingering time, 
iSIanhood's great charter, sovereign and sublime — 
Nor force, nor fraud could wrench its seal away — 
What craven heart such birthright could betray ? 

Sure, some diviner spirit fills these halls. 

The arch pervades, and breathes along the walls ; 

And busy fancy peoples all the floor 

With forms how gi'and, and grander souls of yore ! 



30 

Barren and cold the heart, that could not feel, 
Here, where a Senate wields an empire's weal — 
A Senate, conscious of their country's fame, 
And glories yet to cluster round its name ; 
Imperial Congress of a mighty State — 
Doubtless, their theme befits the hio-h debate. 
What matchless challenge to their prudent toil ! 
What untold treasures fertilize the soil ! 
Yet the full harvest future times must reap, 
When rolling cycles fill their distant sweep ; 
The race advancing, with the ages' flight. 
All truth made clearer, and confirmed all right, 
They and their sons the trust profound shall guard, 
Till all earth's nations grasp the long reward — 
The last Republic, endless and sublime. 
Or ending only with the round of Time ! 

Solemn in aspect, and mature of years, 
Astutus rises to address his peers. 
At once the listening Senate audience lends. 
Even eager beauty from the gallery bends. 
No outwax'd signs betray ambition's rage, 
Perchance his ripe experience makes him sage. 



87 

Yet craftiest statesmen, to be tmly wise, 
Need something more than barely mind and eyes. 
Astutus speaks — the labored phrases flow, 
Too cold for passion, for effect too slow ; 
That voice emotion neither feels nor calls, 
Tame on the ear the measured accent falls ; 
No warm vibration in the cadence rings, 
No flash leaps radiant on the spirit's wings. 
Often the thought intense lies hid beneath 
Words that, if swords, are swords within the sheath ; 
At best, he plays a metaphysic part, 
Skilled to conceal, but not to speak the heart. 
Cold as he seems, he battles for the prize, 
Plays with consummate art, and stoops to rise. 
Abstracted now, as if, these scenes behind, 
Another audience rose upon his mind ; 
Within the chamber absent, for without 
His soul is hearkening for the rabble's shout. 
Yet, when the prey he chased so long seems caught, 
Lo, the base pack this new Actaeon taught, 
Ingrate and flerce, upon the huntsman flies. 
And he, the martyr to his teachings, dies ! 
4 



38 

But all, liis rival, demagogue avowed, 
The hireling wrangler, scarce above the crowd — 
Can patriot souls in such a champion trust — 
And see their country's banner trail in dust — 
To hands so coarse its sacred cause deliver — 
And blot its fame forever and forever ! 

And here what stragglers empty bubbles chase, 

Worn with the strife, and baffled in the race ! 

Some, nature meant for conning classic themes 

In studious shades, and sentimental dreams ; 

For words, not things, — triflers beyond their sphere, 

And wonder never ends, — what do they here ? 

Subtle and keen, but less intent to hide. 

See Duplex rises on the other side ; 

Boisterous and warm, an orator confessed. 

He beats the yielding air, and beats his breast ; 

Fluent and shrewd, and resolute of will, 

To mould a caucus with a sophist's skill, 

No art untried the brilliant ruffler leaves, 

And crowds hang dangling in the mesh he weaves. 

A desperate gambler for the highest mark, 

He does but venture blindly in the dark. 



39 

For Senates watch a dangerous rival's ways, 

Track all his steps, and prove the game he plays ; 

Powerless on them his Limited arrows fall, 

And not a spirit rises to his call. 

Tedious to name, much more describe the rest — 

Patriots who make their country's cause their jest ; 

Tricksters in baubles for the mob, though sly, 

Shallow of thought, and all their life a He ; 

Bitter in word, and prompt in vague pursuit, 

But never sound, or solid, or acute. 

Statesmen are here, and brilliant some in name, 

Battle and peace alike transmit to fame ; 

They need no record in a verse like mine, 

A different order claims the truthful line. 

One sad idea in their fancy teems, 

And clings, as bugbears haunt our childhood's dreams; 

Though most the humbug use, a cheat avowed, 

That suits their crafty purpose with the crowd. 

But oh, what generous visions touch his soul, 

Cribbed in a part, regardless of the whole. 

Who nature's self deserts to serve a sham — 

The race of Japhet for the tribe of Ham ! 



40 

But lo ! the press in yon tumultuous hall, 

Sharp, angry, loud, and ready for a brawl ! 

More like the red-combed champions of the pit, 

Than sad good men, for sober conclave fit — 

When thus they brandish spurs and strut and crow, 

Methinks, the tide of men's affairs ebbs low. 

Good Heavens ! what ^'ast concerns become their place. 

The Aveighty fortunes of a rising race — 

What realms demand the statesman's fostering hand — 

What wealth of seas and riches of the land ! 

Their thoughtful care might native powers unfold. 

No more the spoil of alien art or gold ; 

To generous skill its just rewards assign. 

Call up the buried treasures of the mine. 

Bid order mould the reign of force and fraud, — 

Themselves as noble, as their sway is broad. 

But ah, what ills await the public cause. 
When the State's Gracchi make or mar the laws ! 
Or here whom chance or fate malignant brings 
Tlie fluttering popinjay on feeble wings ; 
Venturous as vain, who public charge assumes, 
Scorn of the wise, though fools admire his plumes ! 



41 

Vain to depict the factious and the loud, 

Party's true hacks, the idols of the crowd — 

Their comrade sworn, the wild fanatic schemes. 

They touch the plunder, and he has — his dreams ; 

Fanatics stiff, the sturdy shrieking kind, 

Puffed-up fanatics, bladders filled with wind — 

These, driven with rage, and those intent to cheat, 

Both keep the public pulse at fever heat. 

So wrong, so headstrong, and so hot of heart, 

Congress like this were better far apart. 

Now here, aloft they wave the fiery brand. 

Now scattering wide they roam the maddened land. 

From platforms flung, or borne on buoyant wings 

Of heaven's free air, the reeking scandal springs ; 

The mob's impulsive heart they blow to flame. 

The weak, the blind, the thoughtless, all their game ; 

Careless of means, each desperate art they strain. 

Fury their lash, and discord in their train ; 

Behind, sedition wheels his lurid car, 

And States in league prepare their souls for war ! 

Here would I rest. Yet haply some may pause 
O'er the rough sketch my rapid pencil draws — 



42 

If sober thought still own a conscious realm, 
Nor manly reason yet desert the helm — 
And ask their secret souls, — regard foregone 
For trivial questions, of this weightier one — 
What wiser care great freedom's self demands — 
What strength of heart, what work for generous 

hands — 
When knaves, the very refuse of mankind, 
And madcaps vain, to their own folly blind, 
Sport with the peace, on common mischief bent, 
Assume to rule, and wdn the crowd's assent ; 
Harrass the public mind and goad the State — 
Their very scoundrel doctrine — " agitate ! " 
When the rank herd, to prudence seldom prone, 
An impulse guides which yet their souls disown ; 
Not the true conscience, but the false obey, 
And choose the light that leads them most astray ; 
Reject, in reason's spite, the nobler soul 
And wiser spirit for a State's control — 
Patriots — for such to every age are given, 
Loyal to reason, truth, to man and heaven — 
But lured by faction, or by malice led, 
Prefer the fawning cheat, or churl instead ; 



43 

Till the State blushes at its own disgrace, 
And every honest man is out of place. 

Such evils flow from freedom's careless use, — 
111 speech, ill manners mark the dire abuse ; 
No true criterion leads degenerate sense, 
And worth gives way to every base pretence. 
Then rampant Folly all her antics plays, 
Fantastic bubbles fix the public gaze ; 
The shrewd dissembler pockets all the pelf, 
And virtue almost blushes at itself. 
The people sink, with moral stupor blind, 
Or vain abstractions wreck the vulgar mind. 
With such false baits the artful learn to play. 
As David's son stole Israel's heart away ; 
The State dechnes ; at length, in tumult tossed, 
Truth, virtue, public right, and all is lost. 

Thus fed and fostered, for insidious ends. 

The black man's honest cause gains worthless friends. 

Noble the thought, — to raise that sable brood, 

To all his being's law allows of good ; 

Keenly to feel, that even the veriest slave 

Claims suffering sinews and a soul to save ; 



44 

His state, Ms nature, pity's throes bespeak, 
Humaner still the more himself is weak. 
Folly — since nature's self the bounds assigned — 
To bid his humbler wit surpass his kind. 
For human wits, since human life began, 
Mark well the nobler from the meaner man. 
The cultured race wins minds supremest range, 
The savage roams, incapable of change. 
But since apostate man's insane accord 
Refused his ransom and renounced his Lord, 
Not yet has stained the bloodiest scroll of time 
So base, so weak, the dark recorded crime, — 
Could a great people for such sordid cause. 
Rend the proud charter of the freeman's laws. 
Dare the fond hope of nations to betray. 
The long desire of ages fling away, 
Hurl freedom's reeling temple from its base, 
Forbid the brightening prospects of the race. 
Check the sweet stream of heaven, its gentle flood 
Displaced with torrents of fraternal blood. 
Yon star-gemmed banner fold, forever furled — 
And be the scorn and mockery of the world ! 



45 

Thus holy freedom, by a sovereign law, 
Exacts, like lovely woman, generous awe. 
Used or abused, she stands withm her shrine 
Goddess or fiend — infernal or divine. 
But if a goddess, with her corslet on, 
Watchful and armed, or evermore undone. 
Fallacious thought, to deem that man's aifairs 
Self-guided move, nor claim imperious cares ! 
No native force, but man's consummate pains 
Builds up the Commonwealth and so maintains ; 
It sinks or soars, is mean or nobly great, 
By him, in God, who constitutes the State. 
If wisely held and ruled the prudent helm, 
So rise the fortunes of the prosperous realm ; 
Or the dark moment comes — and come it must — 
When proudest empire fades — and all is dust. 

Great heaven ! what bolt unlaunched may quivering 

stand. 
Scourge for this still thrice blest yet graceless land ! 
Its just desert what signal plague awaits — 
What woe of woes that vex rebellious states ! 



46 

Though the dread thunders of his judgment sleep, 
When the bad cause prevails, and good men weep — 
The same He reigns, — whose hand withholds the rod, 
While Mercy's soul appeals from man to God ! 

Yet gallant hearts, strong with diviner trust, 
True kin on earth to spirits with the just — 
Say, shall the star of Peace go down in blood — 
Fell Discord stamp his foot, where Freedom stood — 
And tear from skies, to weep in vain the crime, 
Hope's bow serene bequeathed to endless time ! 
Ye guides and safeguards of a glorious State, 
In error weak that should be nobly great. 
If not forever quenched the generous flame. 
Whose orient blazon flushed your country's name — 
If, in your secret bosom's inmost shrine, 
One burning beam reveal the fire divine — 
Revere the tears your country's Genius weeps 
Round sacred graves, where patriot honor sleeps — 
Yourselves revere — the fatal dream repel. 
And bid returning reason break the spell ! 

Up ! for to-day the standard flames afar. 
Of peace supreme, or unextinguished war ; 



47 

To-clay a nation's choice shall wide proclaim 
Triumphant honor, or immortal shame ; 
Anarch and despot watch the expected prey, — 
The sainted dead look down and sigh — " To-day 1 " 
Be sure not all the people's heart is blind, — 
Still bright examples fire the common mind ; 
Ah, bid some nobler thought their souls engage, 
Rampart that best defies fanatic rage ; 
Be warned in time, to check that foaming flood, 
Forever rollino; — still to be withstood ; 
The firm-built barrier half its force restrains, 
Undyked, it sweeps a deluge o'er the plains. 
Bid manly sense resume its wonted post. 
Control the whining, mawkish, canting host ; 
Shame ! were a nation's ripening strength betrayed 
By fainting hearts and drivelling minds afraid ! 
Scout public wranglers from dishonored seats. 
Tools of a locust swarm of pubhc cheats ; 
Drive back this clamorous, Pharisaic crew, 
Who neither God nor Caesar give his due — 
These meddling bigots, with our souls in charge, 
Traitors to duty, when they roam at large. 



48 

Call generous reason home — this trance dispel — 
Ere faith and conscience bid the land farewell. 
Wake from the sluggish dream, indulged too long, 
Be wise and brave and true, and oh, be strong ! 
Forth the decree irrevocable send — 
This civil feud, the State's foul pest, must end ! 
The doubtful cause yet stands unsolved by art, 
A problem deeper than the human heart. 
Nature, our mistress, mightier far than laws, 
Alone controls who first assigned the cause ; 
And quibblers only vex the Commonweal 
For common ills beyond its scope to heal. 

So, at the stand of high resolve again, 

Meet the great question of your hour like men ; 

To this your patriot sense and feeling bring — 

Kule it your servant — not obey, your king. 

No trifler's bauble, and no madman's prize, 

This matchless crown of empire greets your eyes ; 

Forbid it, Heaven ! Your souls should dare resign 

The hope of nations and the aim divine, 

Your children's honor and your father's graves — 

One State of freemen, for a world of slaves ! 



18 July 1460, 



« 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Sept. 2009 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IM COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 




^.;^^^:^^r->"':"''--'- ''^ :- ■■.■■■■■■ 



